Weekly Roundup: All signs point to strengthening market in NYC and U.S., owners of luxury homes gild lillies, lighthouse in Chesapeake Bay for sale

Number of Manhattan properties under contract soars, inventory plummets during 2012

Q4 Brooklyn prices post biggest year-over-year price gain since 2006, while Queens median climbs 14 percent

Bars, restaurants and grocery stores can hurt quality of life, resales for residents of apartment buildings

Foreclosures mushroom in Queens, grow somewhat in Staten Island and the Bronx, slide in Brooklyn and Manhattan

Astronaut resists aiming for moon in putting Los Angeles condo on the market

Former baseball star lists sprawling Beverly Hills estate for $25 million

Actors who split in 2011 finally selling their UES triplex, for $9.25 million

TV judge lists Midtown pied-à-terre for $9 million — yes, for a pied-à-terre!

Estate of acerbic intellectual sells Chelsea penthouse to seven-time Emmy winner

Filmmaker offers Greenwich Village co-op for sale but plans no move to North Dakota

At 4.2 million, home sales

Weekly Roundup: Renters reject commissions, pending sales up over year, rates set record, list IDs ugliest mansions, recovery talk ignites debate

Although able to buy multimillion-dollar residences, some very rich folks choose to rent at sky-high prices instead

Fire Department takes dim view of dangling air conditioners and undertakes strong action

Landlord’s empire of apartment buildings collects thousands of code violations

City comptroller expects large residential properties to maintain value

40 percent of renters say they won’t pay broker’s fee purely on principle

Some Brooklyn renters moving back to Manhattan, where they find cheaper digs

With luxury home sales hitting record, surging Hamptons activity nearly matches 2007

City Council overwhelmingly approves NYU expansion plan

Sales, prices of new condos in Brooklyn boom in Q2 vs. prior year

Westchester communities experience parent drain after commencements

Broadway couple trades hit musical for the Hit Factory

She kisses good-bye to Tribeca condo at a small loss

Filmmaker decides it’s time to sell California estate at an asking price of $9.5 million

Index of contracts signed in June

Weekly Roundup: Manhattan market improves, pending U.S. sales surge, rates still low, more

Take your pick of predictions of the Big Apple’s housing market

NYU says property values approach peak in Manhattan, only borough where prices higher than the last year

Couch potatoes would do well to avoid some buildings

Foreclosures in October decline for fifth consecutive month

Number of Manhattan condo sales barely budges over one month or a year

Tribeca and SoHo most expensive neighborhoods in Q3

Developers target sales commissions for themselves

New program helps buyers of foreclosed homes

Seven signs that it’s time to jettison your broker

Strong rental market generally stable in November

Dominated by residential construction, number of stalled sites shrinks

November sales in Manhattan rise above October but not two prior years, supply dips

Perhaps the stars will shine through clear skies on this $5.5 million listing

Price cut on actor’s home ranks among the big shockers

One of the Vikings conquers

Housing market beats stocks but not bonds, gold

The blue line shows how house values have compared with stocks over time.  (Source: Radar Logic)

A missive from the Radar Logic data firm the other day gave me some information that surprised me and may surprise you as well.

The firm, which tracks home prices in 25 major metropolitan areas, says its RPX Composite Price index grew by 56 percent from January 2000 to July 2011.  “This compares quite favorably to the major stock market indices,” Radar Logic declared.

Over the same period, it reports, the Dow Jones Industrial Average

Weekly Roundup: New tool rates rental buildings, economists agree that U.S. outlook is dimming

Manhattan condo projects shrink dramatically in size

And this year’s crop of available units is sparse

Analysts, brokers conclude in New York magazine that the market could be worse

New Web site ranks buildings for would-be tenants

Doorman of the year mothers residents of Park West Village

Actress ‘on fire’ moves into rental to attend college

This stone is rolling fast and gathering green

Onetime TV doc unloads Hawaii home after major surgery on his original $19 million asking price (3rd item)

Construction of single-family homes still tepid, but number of permits issued edges up

Oh, there’s one housing market for

The Big Apple: Citywide stats improve. . . a bit

VOWs prove useful to buyers searching for new homes

Brokerage firms are getting into the digital game themselves, creating a “virtual office Web site” or VOW.

These are sites operated by brokers that enable clients to search for most of the available properties in a particular market, not just the firm’s exclusive listings, according to the New York Times.

While brokers have mixed feelings about whether these sites are worth the investment, the emergence of the VOW is yet another sign that once tightly guarded listing information has finally been set free in New York.

Dollar value of citywide sales climbs from Q1 to Q2 as seasons change, but sales activity slips 4 percent below one year earlier

The total dollar value of New York City’s residential sales transactions jumped 13 percent in the second quarter of 2011 to

Weekly Roundup: Prices up, recovery iffy. More!

Here’s your chance to catch up with news included to inform, enlighten and perhaps even entertain you. To read about The Big Apple, check out the other of today’s posts and look for Out and About on Tuesday.  And have a very happy Independence Day!

Estate sale of Patricia Neal’s Yorkville co-op sells for $70,000 below asking price

Retired slugger’s Tribeca triplex finds buyer after three years

Model, actress, director’s ex cuts Manhattan link with sale of penthouse for $3.05 million

Terrace presumably enchants actress who buys $1.75 million penthouse in Greenwich Village

TV talk personality relists Greenwich home less $2.1 million, while TV wrestling star also tries again with huge discount

Right-winger turns left, leaving Manhattan to rent in Texas

Couple fulfills their California dreams with purchase of $6.5 million Los Angeles home

With sale of her Beverly Hills estate, actress just goes without it

Late crusty screen legend’s estate in Old Seabrook is listed again, this time for $28 million

Single-family home prices inch up in April but stay 31.8 percent below peak with an analyst’s take on what it all means

Pending home sales rise in May from prior month and prior year

Inventory of homes for sale

Weekly Roundup: Look for silver lining. More!

Here’s your chance to catch up with news included to inform, enlighten and perhaps even entertain you. To read about The Big Apple, check out the other of today’s posts and look for Out and About early next week.

Connecticut palace doesn’t suit owner of just a year

Late at night, he should encounter little traffic on the way to his new Hamptons home

Sale price of his duplex was good but not the greatest

Late director’s home in Pacific Palisades is on the market for $7.9 million

Year over year resales fall again, inventory climbs

What to make of those new existing-home sales anyway?

Shadow inventory continues to decline, remaining at five months’ supply

Prices for houses under Fannie and Freddie ceilings rose unexpectedly in April

Sales of new homes in May drift down again

Radar Logic index posts 5.1 percent decline in April from one year earlier

Well Fargo to halt reverse mortgages

Think twice before

Reported research results rarely tell a true story

Way back in the dark ages, when I was in graduate school getting a master’s in communication, the subject of opinion research so interested me that I developed and conducted a survey for my master’s project.

The result of that intense effort has been my enduring interest and unmitigated skepticism about polls and other studies that are disseminated by the news media.

Although the news media have grown more sophisticated, especially about political polls, I find myself to be continually astonished by how much evidently shoddy research finds validation on the Internet, in newspapers and magazines, and on radio and television.

Regular readers no doubt recall my recurring rants about research on the nation’s housing market, none of which is entirely — or, for that matter — even mostly accurate. Case-Shiller is my favorite target, a great example being in Sunday’s New York Times, when Shiller cited his research based on 407 and 296 respondents in different years as if they represented a national sample of home buyers.  Impossible!

For that matter, how could 407 and 296 responses each reflect national sentiment?  If 296 is sufficient, why poll 407?  Conversely– you get the idea.

If only Shiller were alone.  But none of the others — not Trulia, not Zillow, not RealtyTrac, not CoreLogic, not Radar logic, not the federal government, not one — reveals the true story.

Findings may be out of date,

The Big Apple: Rent market hot, otherwise warm

Manhattan condo prices have yet to recover fully

From its peak in December 2008 to its trough in May 2009, the RPX Manhattan Condominium price declined 24 percent, according to Radar Logic.

Since then, it has regained only about half of the value it lost during the crash.

As of March 31, the RPX Manhattan condominium price was $1,017.10 per square foot, which is 16 percent above its cyclical trough of $923.24, but still 12 percent below its all-time peak of $1,212.83.

Sales activity also remains well below pre-crisis levels.  Activity during March 2011 was 18 percent lower than it was during March 2008, before the national housing crisis took hold of the Manhattan market.

Although the rate of sales increased robustly during 2009, its recovery has faltered since, with the transaction count declining 3 percent over the last year.  There has been a clear shift in the concentration of sales from smaller to larger units over the last year.

Buyers are still out there and having offers accepted

Buyers continue to step up and sign deals for Manhattan property at a very strong pace, according to a new post by Noah Rosenblatt of UrbanDigs.

Finding in his excellent data